Building a Parkinson-Network–Experiences from Germany

Parkinson’s disease is a complex neurodegenerative disease that can be best treated with a multi-disciplinary care approach. Building care networks has been shown as a useful tool to facilitate the integration of care services and improve outcomes for patients and care providers. However, experiences and practices relating to building a network are very limited in the field of Parkinson’s disease. This paper portrays existing Parkinson networks in Germany. With the help of a standardized template, description of networks and their building-blocks, so-called modules, were collected from all over Germany. Modules were rated in terms of their expected benefit and the required effort when implementing them, with the help of an expert survey. The rating showed that some modules were perceived as more important than others, but all modules were recognized as beneficial for patients and care providers. Overall, the German experience shows that building a Parkinson network facilitates the integration of care and provides a benefit to all stakeholders involved.